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Sunday, April 05, 2015

Sarah from A Bit Behind On Books (Celebrating British Bloggers)

Hello and welcome back to another edition of Celebrating British Bloggers! This is a feature I used to run awhile back to help introduce other book bloggers in the UK to one another. I decided to start this feature up again after meeting several very lovely people at a recent event hosted by MiraInk!
Sarah is one of the bloggers that I met and she's wonderful. I now follow her on Twitter and her blog and I really suggest that you do the same! Let her know in comments what you think of her answers...

My name's Sarah, I'm an MA Professional Writing student, wannabe author, who lives in the Backwater of Nowhere, Devon. I blog about YA mostly, but whatever I read I'll write about. 'Behind on Books' was made because I always feel like I'm 'behind' on the latest, hottest, coolest, must have reads. But there are so many books in the world, how are you ever gonna catch up?

How did you begin being a book blogger? What is it about books that makes you excited to talk about books on your blog?

I started a blog because it sounded like fun. I had no idea what I was doing and I generally fumbled around with, poked at, kicked Wordpress until I got it to (sort of) work for me. I found that as I was reading more, I wanted somewhere to talk about it, even if I was talking only to myself. Just somewhere, anywhere, to get all the fangirling out of my system.

What would you like to have known about book blogging before you got started that you didn't know beforehand?

Uh, maybe it's less about blogging, and more about keeping calm around ALL THE BOOKS on NetGalley. Everyone does it. I did it. And my ratio is still RIDICULOUS!

When you're not reading or blogging, what do you do with yourself?

I write! I know, I spend half my gorydamn life staring at a screen. I've said this before, but I'd love for a computer screen that was matte like on my Kindle. It would sure save my already failing eyesight! I also like to eat. And watch stuff on Netflix.

..I do venture outside sometimes too. I have a dog.. so he makes sure I see daylight at least once a day. Actually, that's not true. Sometimes I don't walk him til dark..

What type of things do you champion on your blog? What would you like your blog to be known for?

Honesty.

It sounds simple. But I've been asked why I take the stance I do, especially when I want to be a published author myself. But I look at it this way; If I have something to say about a book, and I'm gonna say it. I would want people to be honest about MY books, too. I DO NOT advocate flaming or any kind of hating on books/authors. Every book has a redeeming quality. I think it just comes down to 'fit'. Like trying on a pair of jeans (and we all know how hard it is to find the right fight, yeah?) sometimes they'll go on, but maybe pinch at the side, or be too tight at the ankle. Maybe they don't fit at all... but that doesn't make them a BAD pair of jeans.

...My analogies often get out of hand. I think that's what I'm more likely to be remembered for.

What has been the best experience of being a book blogger so far?

Recently? Going to the MIRA Ink offices in London and meeting a ton of new people.. heck, I hadn't met ANY bloggers before that. AND getting to meet Maria Snyder too? Such a great evening. A dream.

What is your biggest struggle as a book blogger?

Probably the same as many bloggers. Time. It's hard trying to keep on top of my posts, especially between working and studying.. and sometimes I read too fast for my own good! I literally cannot keep up with myself

What books or authors or series would you like more people to be aware of?

Oh, well I will champion the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown until my last breath. SO GOOD!

And I think maybe Megan Miranda.. I don't see her books popping up that often in the blogosphere and she always brings something different to a story.

Have you discovered any books or authors through blogging that you might not have otherwise found?

I think blogging has given me the push I needed to read some authors whereas I might have either not discovered them, or bypassed them.

Stephanie Perkins, for instance. (I know.. a CRIME, but I'm a Perkins fangirl now through and through) And Veronica Rossi's 'Under the Never Sky' series wasn't really on my radar at all until I saw one of my blogger pals raving about it.. They were right. It was an awesome read.

Name your top 5 UK book bloggers!

Oop! Busted! Ugh.. *cough*

See, I don't necessarily check where bloggers come from. Sure, you can usually tell once you've read some of their posts, their about page, etc. But it's not really a factor for me. Of course I support UK book bloggers! 100%!!

I'm still exploring blogs and bloggers that are a little closer to home (as in, actually residing in this country!) and making more of an effort to use my Bloglivin' feed because I find a much lower UK presence on wordpress. Maybe it's just me..

Maybe I suck at finding you all! Irk! Soz.

If you could meet your favourite author, who would it be?

Tick this one of the list, eh? Maria V Syder was definitely up there for me. It meant a lot to meet her. But I'd also love to get the chance to meet Richelle Mead, Jennifer L Armentrout, OH and J R Ward..

..and, a bit of a wildcard, I would absolutely lose my shit if I was in the same room as Salman Rushdie..

What would you like to see more or less of in the books you read?

Hm, that's a hard one. My gut instinct is to say I'd like to see more attention to detail. And that sounds harsh. But what I mean is, I've noticed in some of the books I haven't enjoyed as much as I thought I would, or those that just didn't 'fit' (yep, we're back to jeans) it's usually because my 'continuity obsessed' brain couldn't let something go.

You know, like when you watch a film and go 'hey, he was holding that in his left hand, and now it's in the right?'

Also, and I think this applies more to fantasy type titles, I get obsessive over descriptions of things that aren't followed through, or that don't make scientific/historical sense. I need to believe this mad mutant ability and how it works, or whatever. Just a little attention to detail and BLAMMO I'm locked in and I'll forgive the author any amount of craziness.

It's picky, pedantic stuff that I know I'm guilty of in my own writing.. But it's just the way I read. And I can't help but notice it.

And finally, who is your ultimate book crush?

Valek (Study series, Maria Snyder). Hands down, no competition.

BUT runners up prizes (because it's the taking part that counts) go to Wrath from J R Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and Dimitri from Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series.

2 comments:

Valek truly is a worthy book crush to have. Furthermore honesty is such an important asset to have when writing reviews. That is the best I think any blogger can offer to their readers, authors and publishers.

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Me Me Me

I've been running my book blog, Fluttering Butterflies, for the past (nearly) 9 years and have recently taken up booktubing on my own channel, cloveryness, as well as collaboratively with the Bookish Brits.